Although nominated in the large format console catagory with the Avid Pro Tools S6 control surface Avid failed to win. This is the first time since 1998 that Digidesign/Avid have lost out on a TEC Award.

The Cinema Audio Society has announced the nominations for the 51st CAS Awards for outstanding achievement in sound mixing for 2014 and the CAS Technical Awards. You can read the full list of nominees here but there are a few we would like to highlight.

In the Television Movie or Mini Series Category…

Sherlock: His Last Vow - Re-recording Mixer - Howard Bargroff

In the Television Non-Fiction, Variety, Music Series or Special Category….

Deadliest Catch: Lost at Sea - Re-Recording Mixer - Bob Bronow, CAS

Moving onto the technical achievement awards in the post production category the nominations are…

Avid – S6 Control Surface

Exponential Audio – Phoenixverb Surround

iZotope – RX4-Advanced

Maggot Software – Spanner v2.1

Source Elements – Source-Connect Pro v3.8

The awards will be presented on Feb 14th in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. We will let you know how they get on.

Alchema are very proud to announce that three of their graduates have been included in the short lists for the 2015 Music Producers Guild Awards.

Recording Engineer of the Year – Neil Comber

Neil Comber’s recording credits this year include the smash hit album ‘Matangi’ by international superstar MIA – check out Alchemea’s recent interview with Neil where he discusses his career so far and his time at Alchemea.

Breakthrough Engineer – Robbie Nelson

Now firmly part of the furniture at 2013′s MPG ‘Studio of the year’ RAK studios – This year Robbie has been credited as engineer on many great musical projects including tracks by Beck and the critically acclaimed John Newman album Tribute.

UK Single Song Release Of The Year – Sam Smith – Stay with me

The song was written and produced by Alchemea graduate James Napier aka Jimmy Napes – James has had an amazing year gaining huge recognition and success on both sides of the Atlantic from his work with Sam Smith, Naughty Boy, Mary J Blige, Disclosure and Jessie Ware.

Talent Trained At Alchemea

All three of these talented guys graduated from Alchemea’s intensive Studio Sound & Music Production Diploma course before beginning their studio careers – If you are interested in starting a career in music or professional audio you can get in touch with Alchemea to see if one of their courses could help you.

Last year the Pro Tools Expert Award was based around a product and were won by Maag for their EQ2 plug-in, deservedly so, they make great products and know how to take care of their users.

This year we’ve decided to change things a little and broaden the awards, so this year we are trying to find who you think are the companies are consistently delivered great products in 2014 and the companies that have consistently taken care of their users.

The field is wide open as you can nominate anyone you like, from a one-person developer right through to a huge global brand, there’s no predetermined list. It’s up to the community who gets a nomination and you can select a different company for each category too.

Nominations will run until the end of November and then the top 5 nominations will be placed up for community votes.

The winner/s will be selected at the end of December 2014 and presented with Awards at NAMM 2015.

Finally, if the company you nominate is a winner then your name will automatically be placed in a prize draw and one person in the draw will win a lot of very nice studio and production gear as prizes!

We would like to congratulate all the nominees announced for the 66th Emmy Awards. There is a full list available on the Emmys web site but in the sound categories there were a few friendly names we would like to give a special shout out to…

Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming

Deadliest Catch • Careful What You Wish For • Discovery Channel • Original Productions, LLC, a FremantleMedia Company for the Discovery Channel

Bob Bronow, C.A.S., Re-Recording Mixer

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Mini series, Movie Or A Special

Sherlock: His Last Vow (Masterpiece) • PBS • Hartswood West for BBC/Cymru Wales in co-production with Masterpiece

Doug Sinclair, Supervising Sound Editor

Stuart McCowan, Sound Editor

Jon Joyce, Sound Editor

Paul McFadden, Sound Editor

Sue Harding, Foley Artist

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Miniseries Or A Movie

Sherlock: His Last Vow (Masterpiece) • PBS • Hartswood West for BBC/Cymru Wales in co-production with Masterpiece

John Mooney, Sound Mixer

Howard Bargroff, Re-Recording Mixer

Doug Sinclair, ADR Mixer

Peter Gleaves, ADR Mixer

It is great to see great talent recognised and rewarded espacially as so many of us only have a studio tan to show for it. Congatulations to you all.

There have been a number of awards announced at NAMM that are Pro Tools related.

First off, congratulations to the Avid Pro Tools 11 team on winning the TEC Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement in Workstation Technology!

Then iZotope’s Insight metering package has won a TEC Award for Ancillary Equipment, well done team.

The team at AIR Music Tech took home Electronic Musician’s Dream Weaver award for Loom.

And last, but by no means least, Michael Carnes has learnt that his Exponential Audio Phoenixverb has been nominated for a CAS (Cinema Audio Society) Technical Achievement Award. He told us…

To say I’m surprised would be an understatement—it’s nothing I applied for and certainly nothing I expected. It’s a tough category with a number of other good companies in the running I’m honored to be in their company. That sounds trite, but it’s true.

What this means is that you, my friends, supporters and customers, have been thoughtful enough to ask that PhoenixVerb be considered for this award. I thank you as sincerely as I possibly can. This audio community is a special little town to live in and I’m happy to be a part of it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This month Pro Tools Expert celebrates its 5th anniversary, having started in 2008 as a blog to help a few people struggling with Pro Tools, we’ve now just completed our 5th year and we’re a little bigger.

We’ve been asking community members and friends of the blog to share their own stories.

Dave Pensado sent me this message last night and has given me permission to share it. Dave is a Grammy winning producer who also hosts ‘Pensado’s Place’ one of the most loved shows in the industry.

Hi Russ, congrats to you and the guys. I’m addicted to Pro Tools Expert. You guys were incredible in getting me thru the Great ILok upgrade of ‘13, and also are my AAX watch dog. I watch all your tutorials, and take advantage of the gear/software specials often. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! Dave Pensado

If you want to nominate a producer, engineer, breakthrough producer, remixer, studio or more, then head over to the Music Producers Guild (MPG) and have your say.

Nominate your favourites for inclusion in the shortlists for the MPG Awards 2014. Anyone who has been involved in the production of projects released between August 2012 and July 2013 can become a nominee – you can even nominate yourself! Closing: midnight on Oct 14th.

We want to congratulate our friends at iZtotope for winning an engineering Emmy for RX.

Just in time for RX 3’s arrival, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has awarded iZotope a 2013 Engineering Emmy® for RX Audio Repair Technology! This award is presented to an individual, company or organization for engineering developments so significant that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.

iZotope say;

“We are so proud to add this Engineering Emmy to RX’s sterling resume, and even more proud to introduce the next version of our flagship audio repair tools to such a supportive user community.

A sincere thank you for helping make RX an industry standard for television and broadcast!”